MCB supports the official launch of the MediaHub Brussels

The MediaHub Brussels was officially launched on Tuesday. Minister of Media and Brussels Sven Gatz and the VUB, together with the business world, set up this new initiative. The launch was accompanied by an event in Brussels in presence of Sven Gatz (Flemish minister of Culture, Youth and Media), Caroline Pauwels (rector of the VUB) as well as professors in media, communication and journalism studies from the VUB, ULB, and Université Saint-Louis Bruxelles and professionals of Brussels’ media industry.

Minister Gatz and Prof. Pauwels both highlighted at the event the importance of strengthening Brussels’ media industry through investing in media education as well as research and innovation. The MediaHub Brussel will therefore stimulate cooperation between media companies, cross-disciplinary academic researchers, and policy makers. A very concrete first step includes the launch of a new degree “Postgraduate in Media Economics” at VUB.

Media Clusters Brussels: HOW CAN WE MAKE THE LOCAL MEDIA ECOSYSTEM A SUCCESS?

MCB helped organizing the event and hosted a panel that debated about the question: how can we support the local media ecosystem. MCB’s researcher Marlen Komorowski gave an introductory presentation setting the scene of Brussels Media Industry, before the panel. The panel highlighted that there is a need to create a “fabric”, close ties between the local media actors in Brussels. The panel consisted of international researchers and experts of Brussels’ media industry:

Dieter Boen, VRT Innovation

Noël Magis, Screen.Brussels

Dane Anderton, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School

Michal Glowacki, University of Warsaw

Ike Picone, Media Clusters Brussels

The next steps for MCB researchers include publishing the final deliverables for the project, finalizing articles in peer reviewed journals, a book project and two Ph.D defenses. MCB is so far a very productive project, thanks to the energy of passionate scholars and to the support of Innoviris.